Seen Better Days
by UnderlyingLoyalty
Summary: Axton has always been a man with one goal; survive. After being dishonorably discharged from Dahl and forced to flee to Pandora. He merely set out to get rich, but things aren't always that simple.. After saving the planet from the greatest threat its ever seen and even making great friends. He'll discover somethings not only about others, but himself aswell.. (Post- Borderlands 2)
1. Chapter 1

Seen Better Days

Yeah, I've killed my fare share of men when I was it dahl...like once, there was this guy... huge ass dude.." Axton said through hiccups. He had already downed his seventh Rakk-ale that night, and he probably should've stopped after the third.

"But..he didn't actually have like, a huge ass ya know?.." Axton said in between laughter, obviously intoxicated enough to act so childish and to be amused by himself while doing it.

Next to him sat Salvador, or "Sal" as everyone had taken to calling him, Pandora's most deadly and feared gunzerker, was there, almost equally as drunk as Axton was, acting like a drunken fool.

"Hehehe, I don't know amigo, sounds to me like this is a story of pleasure, not business." He added with a mocking smirk.

"Oh..shut it, I'm not into dudes like that remember?" he said in between hiccups.

As Sal and Axton went on and on about the adventures and kills they've made, constantly exaggerating them in an attempt to outwit each other. Zer0 sat in the booth across from them with his arms folded, becoming more and more annoyed as the two drunk men continued to argue on about what he felt was nonsense.

"Sigh, why did I even come with you two? I dont even drink." He said with a brief look at his one bottle of Rakk-ale that he hadn't even touched.

When the vault hunters had all first met, Zer0 had barely spoken, and if he did, it was always in haiku. However as time went on, even though no one had ever seen his face on account of his helmet always being on, they could tell he became more relaxed around him, and thus he spoke a little more often, and not always in his strict haiku.

"Well hey buddy, we invited you..and you came...so now here we are! If you just..wanna be a hard ass and not have any fun then get outta here." Axton exclaimed with a half full bottle of rakk-ale in his hand, waving it around slightly in the air, and leaning the top on the bottle towards the exit.

Zer0 let out a sharp sigh, "Fine, I'm leaving then, I'm going to bed" he said as he got up and exited the bar. leaving the two drunk men alone at the table.

"Man, what a douche, he outta let loose a little every once in a while, have some fun." Sal said in a drunken tone.

"Amen to that, bro" Axton said in agreement as the two clinked bottles.

Across the room sat Lilith, Maya, and Gaige, tow of the galaxy's six sirens along with one of the most skilled robotics expert Pandora had ever seen. The two sirens sat next to each other discussing their ever increasing siren powers and abilities.

Next to Maya sat Gaige, chin resting on her fist, obviously very bored of hearing the two siren sisters go on about their such amazing abilities. She piped up "Yeah, yeah we know, you're both totally badass chicks who can melt some dudes body with a single touch yadda, yadda, yadda. I and everyone else had heard it enough times already." she said, slightly annoyed and bored.

Both sirens next to her furrowed their brows, and scoffed in annoyance. "Whatever" they both said, nearly in unison.

As they had all stopped talking, Maya turned her head over towards the booth to where Axton and Sal were seated and asked "I wonder if the guys are having anymore fun than we are. This place is such a drag, well unless you're drunk."

"Probably are" Gaige said with a smirk as she looked over towards Lilith, who had smirked back.

Sensing something, between the two Maya looking suspiciously at the two and asked, "Did something i say amuse the two of you?" Maya said as she squinted slightly and looked at the both of them.

"Oh its nothing, its just that, Lil and I both knew that a night like this wouldn't go by without you gawking over our friend Axton over there."

This had slightly alarmed Maya, "Wh-What are you talking about? I don't-" Maya had said nervously as she attempted to defend herself.

"Ah, ah, ah, you can't lie to us like that, sister. Almost all of us know you've had the hots of Ax over there ever for awhile now. " Lilith said with her arms folded, a smirk running across her face.

In truth, Maya did have feelings for the man, but she never dared speak about it. She liked what he saw in him, even though he could come off as a smug, self centered asshole with an ego the size of Pandora. Behind that was a different man, one who had integrity, one who was strong, gentle, kind, and diciplined. She always thought he was cute, with his neatly combed hair and clean shaven face, his toned and strong body, and an ass so perfectly-

"Uh hello, earth to Maya?" Lilith had said while snapping here fingers in front of Maya's weary gaze which was fixed towards Axton's booth.

"Nuh, wha-what?" Maya suddenly exclaimed eyes widened as she looked towards Lilith and Gaige, who was trying very hard to hold back all her laughter, as was Lilith.

"We think you zoned out for a minute there girl. Had your eyes fixated on what seems to be a pleasurable site for you." Lilith said as she tilted her head towards Axton's booth.

At that, Maya's face turned to a bright red and she pinched her mouth shut. It was a good thing Axton and Sal were seated away from them, or else she would have feared that they would have spotted Maya making looks at Axton.

"Nothin' to say, Maya?" Gaige said with a grin.

"Wha- whatever, I think I'm done with this conversation. I'm going outside for awhile, to get some air, bye you guys" Maya said nervously, her face still red as fire.

The two women merely remained seated and watched her go out, smug expressions still on their faces.

"Bunch of assholes, they should learn to mind their own damn business." she said annoyed.

Though she knew this wasn't the first time that her friends had teased her about her little crush on Axton, they could obviously tell. Just by the looks on her face when she saw him, they way she spoke to him, and so on, she hadn't made it very hard to tell.

She sighed as she sat on the bench inside Pierce Station, the city was dark now, lit only by the streetlights or LED signs from Moxxi's bar or 's clinic. She wasn't exactly ready to head off to bed yet. So she sat at her bench with her arms and legs crossed, thinking about the earlier events.

"Aye amigo, so how're you and that special little...someone, huh?" Sal said with a hiccup and taunting smile. He knew Axton had a crush on her for a long while now.

"Oh shut the fu-fuck up, Sal, none of your damn business." Axton said as he stumbled through his words.

"Heheheh, just asking bro, no need to get so fired up." Sal said.

Axton always thought of sirens as an interesting kind of women, (then again, hell who didn't? There were only 6 of them in the galaxy at one time and could as easily kill you as to say "Hello") but Maya, she was different. At first he had treated her just as he did most women, and would pretend to hit on them only to get an eye roll or even a threat sometimes. But as time went on, he saw something different about her, she was sweet, forgiving, funny even. He would sometimes roll his eyes at her corny humor or attempts to seem tough, but on the inside, he enjoyed it, and even thought it was a little cute.

"Whatever, what do you say we pack it up for the n-night? I'm fairly d-done here." Axton said as he stumbled and slurred over his words. He was drunk, but tired.

"Lets, I've had enough of this place, for one night" Sal exclaimed in a surprisingly slightly-sober tone.

As Axton and Sal got up from their booth, they both tossed a down a wad of cash, which should make for payment for their drinks plus a generous tip for Moxxi.

They made their way out the side door and out onto the streets, as they nearly fell down the steps leading up towards Pierce Station and Marcus Munitions. Sal turned towards Marcus's shop.

"I'm gonna head to the shooting range, see if I'm an even bu-better shot drunk." Sal said as he pulled out his pistol. "Care to join?" he said

"Nah, I'm good, I think I might hit it, try and sleep this booze off." Axton said as he tried to remain standing.

"Alright, see you in the mornin' amigo" Sal said as he made his was inside the shop.

Axton, now alone, made his way towards the crimson lance HQ, where he would head off to his room and rest. Ever since the vault hunters killed Handsome Jack and took down Hyperion, the crimson lance HQ has received some serious remodeling, including separate rooms for all the vault hunters.

As he stumbled down the road, past Pierce Station he caught the attention of Maya, still seated on the bench, she watched the commando stumble down the street as he hadn't noticed the blue haired siren watching him. When he was nearly towards the HQ he suddenly tripped over his own feet and stumbled to the ground. Seeing that he wasn't getting up and how he took such a hard fall, Maya ran to his side, slightly alarmed.

"Axton? Axton are you alright?" She said as she shook him

"Hu-huh?" Axton said groggily

"It's me, Maya" she said softly as she attempted to get him back to his feet

"Oh, he-hey Maya, what're you doing u-up this late,huh?" Axton said as he stumbled and slurred his words together.

He slowly got to his feet as Maya threw his arm over her shoulder and helped him get inside the HQ.

"That doesn't matter, lets get you inside and in bed. You need some rest." she said as they walked towards the HQ entrance and up the steps towards Axton's room.

"Heheh, I always knew you'd try and get me in bed, i kn-knew you wouldn't be able to resist.." Axton said in his drunken tone.

She rolled her eyes out of annoyance yet smiled at the same time, it felt good having his arm over her, and having him so helplessly drunk at the same time. It made her feel like he needed her.

As they finally reached his room Maya took his room key out of Axton's pocket and unlocked it, he always kept it in the same place. She guided him into the room carefully

"Mu-Maya" Axton said in a slightly alarmed tone.

"What is it? Whats wrong?" she said

"I-I think I might-" Axton said as his face went pale and his mouth began to fill up with vomit.

Luckily there was a nearby trashcan and Maya was quick enough to realize what was going on and grabbed it and held in towards Axton as he spewed the contents on his stomach into it.

"Ugh.." Maya said with a shudder. "This might be a long night..." she thought in the back of her head.


	2. Chapter 2: Pieces of The People We Hide

Chapter 2: Pieces of the People We Hide

As Maya allowed Axton to finish vomiting into the bucket she felt her own stomach become uneasy as well, she was used to seeing the constant blood and even sometimes spilled organs of their foes in combat. However for some reason, she never had much of a stomach for vomit. She pushed the thought of it to the back of her head and did her best not to puke as well. Once Axton had stopped, she carefully set him down on his bed.

"Alright pal, nice and easy now." She said as she carefully set him into bed. Axton was a lot heavier than she was, and she was never one to be able to carry a ton of weight.

As Axton lay there on his side, he was surprisingly able to let out words. As Maya was about to leave his room and leave him to himself for the night he spoke up.

"Maya, darlin I'm..sorry" he said in a groggy and fumbling voice.

She turned her head over to him, his eyes were closed and his face even had a look of embarrassment on it, something the commando had rarely ever shown.

"It's alright Axton you just had a little too much tonight, Sal, Mordacai, and Brick have done it plenty of times, don't worry about it." She said with a reassuring smile, even though she fully well knew his eyes were closed and he wouldn't see her.

But Axton had protested, "No, no it's not alright" he said in an upset tone. "I knew when to stop, I knew I shouldn't have...I kn-knew it. But I did it anyways.."

Maya, surprised as to why he's being so hard on himself, went over to him and laid her hand on his shoulder and sat next to him on his bed, though she wasn't sure if he was self-aware enough to actually feel it. "Don't be upset Axton, we all make stupid choices and stupid mistakes. It happens to all of us."

"I know..I just need to stop...drinking my problems away.." Axton had said as he finally passed out from the alcohol. Maya sat there, puzzled by what she had just heard, "Drinking his problems away?" she had continued repeating in her mind, why would he need to drink away his problems? Sure she knew he had split up with his wife, but lots of relationships go bad, and this had happened almost a year ago by now, what was really going on with the commando she had grown to care for?

As Axton laid there, voices kept repeating in his head; _"You cant just avoid us forever Axton, we're here forever. A forever reminder of how much of a failure you are, after all you've allowed to happen. Face it, own up to what you are, a failure, a failure who let his own-."_

Axton tried hard to push the voices out of his head, he hated hearing it all the time...all the goddamn time.

As she eventually got up from where she was sitting, she notices there was some vomit on Axtons coat, well actually a lot of it. If she left it on him he was sure to roll over in the middle of the night and get vomit all over the bed. Figuring that he would wake up totally hungover and not remember at all what happened, she decided to remove the jacket. As she carefully undid his zipper and opened up the jacket, she realized he wasn't wearing a shirt underneath. She blushed at the sight of the commando's toned abs and pecks, damn was he fine. All of those years in the Dahl military really did him a lot of good.

"Okay Maya, all those years training with monks totally prepared you to take a dirty jacket off of a hot passed out drunk guy, right?" she said to herself trying to make for a lighter situation.

As she took the sleeves of his jacket off of him and eventually went to remove the other. Axton had turned onto his back and let out a snore. He was a heavy-enough sleeper when sober, but when drunk, not even an earthquake could wake him up.

She finally removed his other sleeve freeing the entire jacket from him, she turned Axton back onto his side where he was, just incase he would get sick again and vomit in his sleep.

She then stood there, looking down at the shirtless commando who was sleeping peacefully. Maya bit her bottom lip at the sight of him, "Damn" she thought "He _does_ look cute when he's sleeping"

Maya then snapped back to reality, "Wait, did I just check out a drunk guy who's completely passed out from alcohol? I did didn't I?" She let out a sigh and made her way out of his room and downstairs, she threw his jacket in one of the washing machines, that way it'd be clean by tomorrow morning.

She let out a yawn and headed to her own room to retire for the night, as she layed down, what Axton had said earlier was still buzzing through her head, what was he hiding? Out of everyone Axton would be the last person to let out his feelings and personal problems. Maya was left to wonder.

The next morning Maya woke up still patially tired, it was around 9:30 in the morning, she was usually one of the first few to wake up in the morning, though because she hadn't gone to bed until late last night, she didn't wake up until later. She got up from bed and went over to her bathroom to wash up, brush teeth, and put on make-up as usual. after she had finished she got dressed and headed downstairs. Noticing everyone was sitting down at the table enjoying breakfast, all except for Axton.

"Heya, slab!" Brick yelled over to Maya as she made her way over.

"Morning guys." Maya said as she sat down at the table in between Zer0 and Gaige

As the other greeted her Gaige handed her a plate, "Brick made some bitchin' scrambled eggs and skagg bacon for all of us. Grab yourself some before it's all gone."

"Yeah! This is almost as good as mi abuela's cooking!" Sal said with a mouth full of eggs.

"Well, almost." Sal said with a teasing grin. Brick returned with an amused smile

Maya smirked and shook her head, "Sure, I could go for something good right about now." Maya said as she spooned out some scrambled eggs from the large bowl in the middle of the table and took 2 pieces of bacon.

"Soooo, I saw what had happened last night, huh?" Mordacai said with a smile that said "I know something you don't want me to."

Maya nearly choked on her eggs, "What..are you talking about?" Maya said as she began to get nervous.

"I was up here on the balcony last night drinking from my bottle and plucking some of talon's feathers, when all of a sudden I see Axton stumble and fall. I was gonna go down and help him up at first, but then I saw you heading towards him, and I didn't want you to loose your opportunity" Mordacai added with a teasing smirk.

Maya knew she was caught, and there probably wasn't much she could say to get her out of this.

"Well..he was.. you know, out cold! I couldn't have just left him there!" Maya said as her cheeks bagan to blush

Just then Mordacai, Lilith and Gaige all looked right at her and smirked, and at that she knew she was screwed.

"Yeah, we can go with that, sure." Lilith said sarcastically.

It was a good thing that neither Mordacai or anyone else had seen the incident with her and Axton's shirt. Or else she'd be subject to torment and teasing for at least a month.

"Well, whatever, anyways Lilith what do you have scheduled for us today?" Maya said, trying to change the subject.

"I'm glad you asked kiddo, the truth is, now that Jack is out of the picture, Hyperion has been nothing short of severly crippled. But there are still outposts where Hyperion still has a remaining presence. You're to go in, wipe them out, nice and simple. Questions?" Lilith said as she looked around at all the vault hunters.

"No, ma'am" Maya answered

"Nope" said Gaige

"None whatsoever" Zer0 muttered

"Nah" said salvador, his mouth still full of eggs

"When sleeping beauty up there wakes up, one of you get him some painkillers and brief him." Lilith said as she stood up and went to take up her plate

As Maya and everyone else finished their breakfast they all got up one by one to take up their plate and prepare for the next mission. Maya had stopped Salvador from eating it all, just so that there would be some left for Axton when he woke up.

As Axton opened his eyes to the bright sunny afternoon beaming in from his window, it instantly felt like someone had taken a pair of knifes to his eyes and was beating his brain with a hammer while doing it.

"Aaah goddammit that hurts." He muttered as he shielded his eyes from the what felt like intense light.

He gained enough composure to sit up in bed, his hand still over his eyes, trying to rub the sleep out of them.

"How much..did i drink last night?" he asked himself

"I don't even remember what happened after I left the bar, let alone how much I drank." he said to himself again

It took his eyes awhile to adjust to the bright sunlight until he finally got out of bed and was now sitting on the side of it.

Just then Maya happened to notice the sounds of Axton waking up from his room, she made her way over to his bedroom door that she left slightly ajar last night. She knocked on the door twice, not wanting to barge in.

The bang from the knock had made Axtons headache flare up once again, he winced at the pain.

"Argh..come in" he said

"Hey hey there sleepy head..enjoy the booze last night?" Maya said with a smile as she entered the room

"Heh, I enjoyed it, but it seems like it doesn't enjoy me after awhile" Axton said as he rubbed at his temples.

"Well, I guess that's what happens when we get totally hammered with our friends and fall over on our way home" Maya said with a smirk

Just then it hit him, he remembered how he'd stumbled his way home last night only to be carried home by the blue-haired women right in front of him.

"Oh man, yeah now I remember...listen thanks a lot for helping me last night. If you haden't come by some of the locals probably would've thought I was dead and have looted me, so thanks again" Axton said with a light chuckle

"Oh its no problem, just helping out a fellow vault hunter, right?" She said with a slightly flattered grin.

"Oh and Lilith told me to bring you these, maybe dull down the pain of a hangover a little" said Maya as she handed Axton the bottle of painkillers.

"Damn, you're a lifesaver. You've got no idea the miracles these things work." Axton said while he opened the bottle and quickly popped two of the capsules into his mouth.

"Again, us vault hunters have to stick together, right?" she said with a smile

"True enough." Axton replied back

Just as Maya was about to brief him on their next mission, Axton looked down and back up towards her.

"Hey uhh, any idea what happened to my jacket?.." Axton said confused

Just then Maya knew she had to explain herself, she knew it was impossible to lie her way out of this, so she had to come clean.

"Okay well, umm..see last night when I got you back here.. see you kinda puked, a lot. I was able to get you to that trash bin over there" she said pointing to the empty waist bin in the corner of the room, she had emptied out all of the vomit from the trash bin last night.

"But..see alot of it kinda..got on your shirt, and id didn't want you to wake up with vomit all over your bed so I..took it off of you..." Maya said, her face now a bright red.

"Listen I'm really..really sorry, I know I probably shouldn't have gone that far into your personal space like that.." She said, not even knowing how to apologize for this.

Axton stared at her in silence for a few moments, Maya looked back at him with an extremely embarrassed look on her face, she prepared for the worst. Though it was only a few seconds, it felt like forever to Maya.

After a good 10 seconds Axton began to chuckle, then it turned to full laugh. Maya was surprised at this, she certainly didn't expect this kind of reaction from him at all.

"Hahahahaha, so that it, huh? First you carry me home then you undress me?" Axton said in between laughs.

At this Maya found herself with a smirk on her face as well. She was relieved he'd taken it so well.

"Well, thanks I suppose, you helped me out, and hey you even got rewarded; you got to see one of the sexiest men on Pandora shirtless." Axton said with a grin as he stood up and put his arms behind his head, showing off his whole upper body.

Maya rolled her eyes "Oh shut up Ax" she said as she bumped him in the stomach with the back of her hand. Not being able to hold back her grin.

Axton leaned in and said quietly, "Hey, vault hunters remember? Gotta look out for one another." he said

Maya pressed her lips and crossed her arms "Go get yourself cleaned up and get a shirt on. We've got a new mission from Lilith, Brick made us all breakfast a little while ago, we saved you some leftovers. Come on, I'll brief you down there." Maya said as she walked away

"What? Oh hell yes!" Axton said in excitement as he hurried to get ready. As he's always loved Brick's cooking.

Maya rolled her eyes again and smirked as she walked down the hall, arms still crossed. Axton really was one in a thousand.

 **A/N: Boom! That's chapter 2 for you, sorry if the story is a little slow for you but rest assured, it will pick up in the next chapter action wise. Also, I forgot to mention but even though this fic is marked under "Humor and Romance" I can assure you there will be action and more to it than that ;p**

 **Anyways I hope you've been enjoying and please review! Let me know what you liked, didn't, and what should be improved. Until next time! -UL**


	3. Chapter 3: Dark Secrets

Chapter 3: Dark Secrets

"Alright, everyone ready to go?" Axton asked as he tuned over to his fellow vault hunters.

"Hehehe, as I'll ever be." said Salvador with a devious smile as he held two loaded Torgue shotguns in his hands.

"I'm all geared up" said Maya

"Me and DT are ready to kick and and DEFIANTLY take names!" Gaige yelled, her Tediore SMG in hand.

"My axe is thirsty..grind their cartilage!" Kreig yelled at the top of his lungs as he held up his buzzaxe in one hand and his Bandit assault rifle in the other.

Axton nodded as he loaded his Dahl assault rifle and activated the fast travel station. They were going to the Wildlife Exploitation Preserve, it was rumored that Helios had abandoned the old base and the remaining scientists and Soldiers stationed there were left standed with limited supplies and firepower, a perfect target for the Crimson Raiders to strike next. The five vault hunters arrived just outside the main gate, Zer0 accepted on a different job for Moxxi, so he wouldn't be joining them for this mission.

"Alright, you all know the plan, we get in, take down any Hyperion presence we find, and wipe this place off the map, they might be abandoned and weak, but that doesn't mean the fights kicked outa them yet, so be cautious" Axton said to the rest of the group

"I don't know amigo, loud and dangerous is always the funnest route ya know?" Salvador said as he cocked both shotguns and started forward.

"The bloody gluttons will taste my axe with their faces." Kreig said as he swung his axe around, starting to move ahead.

Axton merely rolled his eyes "Whatever, it's your ass out there anyways."

Maya walked to his side, "Lead the way 'Sargent Axton' ", she said with a smirk.

"After you M'lady" Axton said gesturing his hand forward, returning the smile.

"Such a gentleman" Maya said sarcasticly as she walked forward.

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The five made there way into the base, Salvador and Kreig being the first into the fight, causing mayhem inbetween Salvador's explosive shotguns and grenades and Kreig's buzzaxe and high-capacity Bandit assault rifle with incendiary damage. While Gaige, Maya and Axton stayed behind and acted as support, each one of them sending their action skill to either help the two up front or clear out the remaining hostiles who were left behind by Sal or Kreig.

Eventually the group made their way into the specimen maintenance area, and then into the courtyard, they were met with several skags and stalkers, though it was nothing they couldn't handle.

The entire mission was surprisingly boring to Axton, as it was nothing challenging fighting Hyperion with some of the most deadly vault hunters on pandora, then he got an idea, maybe he could slip away by himself into the expirementation area. There were bound to be plenty of loaders and engineers there, maybe he would finally get a challenge.

In-between gunfire and screaming-from both the dying skags and Krieg, Axton leaned over towards Maya and Gaige and said "Gonna go check out the experimentation area, clear it out if there's anything there." hoping that neither of them would want to come.

"Need any support?" Gaige offered as she raised up her SMG

"Nah I can handle it, but thanks" he said as he headed towards the building

"Be careful, Ax!" Maya yelled towards him as he headed towards the building. He gave a small nod in reply.

As she shot towards the swarms of skags, Gaige turned her head towards Maya and gave her a teasing smirk.

"Yeah, wouldn't want your man to get booboo or anything would we?" Gaige said in a taunting voice

Maya, irritated at this, furrowed her brow and scoffed; "Really, you're going to do this NOW?" she said as she fired her maliwan SMG at the group of skags and rakks overhead.

"Heh, just sayin' " said Gaige as she tuned her attention back towards the line of fire.

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As Axton made his way inside he was met by the Experimentation Greeter loader bot, still seated in the same chair as always.

"IF YOU HEAR SCREAMING COMING FROM THE EXPERIMENTATION AREA, STOP LISTENING SO HARD." the machine remarked.

Axton shook his head, "Yeah, thanks for the heads up, man" he thought to himself sarcastically.

He tuned the corner to the main room to a group of loaders and combat engineers, they easily noticed his presence and stated to unload on him. Thinking fast and ahead in a combat situation as always, Axton quickly took cover and lobbed a grenade over his shoulder, he could tell from the sound that it had taken down a few loaders. He reloaded his Dahl assault rifle and when the bullets had stopped, he knew it was his turn to go to the offensive. He popped out of cover and began to fire at the group of hostiles, there were 2 combat engineers and 1 GUN loader left, he made quick work of the loader as his rifle did corrosive damage; he watched as the corrosive acid ate through the metal of the bot almost instantly as it fell to the hard ground with a crash.

"One down, two to go." Axton thought to himself, joyed that he finally got a real challenge.

Just then however, on eof the engineers must have lobbed a grenade perfectly over Axtons cover, the close proximity and sheer power from the grenade had nearly depleted Axton's shield.

"Urgh, damn that hurt!.." he thought to himself, the engineer must've been using an expensive Hyperion grenade mod. As it did a number on his shield and it would take a while for it to recharge.

Just then as he tried to move he realized he was face to face with one of the engineers, seeing his angry face behind the visor for just a slight second before Axton pulled out his hatchet and sunk it into his neck, killing the Hyperion employee instantly and sending him to the ground with a thud.

With only one engineer left, though he was no where to be found; Axton was almost ready to walk his way out and regroup with his team when he felt the butt of a gun smack hard against the back of his head. The force sent him to the ground on his hand and knees, when he tuned over he saw none other than the last engineer who he lost track of. Axton was just about to pull out his rifle and kill him when he realized-

 _he was out of ammo..._

With his shield gone, turret still cooling down and weapon out of ammo, Axton found himself in a tight spot, as he was trying to think of a way out of this he was broken out of his train of thought oddly by the engineer. Instead of killing him then and there, he merely stood there with his gun aimed at him, taunting him.

"Well look at the little bandit shit! No where to run , huh? HA! Too bad I didn't get ta kill ya when Jack was around, I woulda gotten that promotion for sure! Oh well, time to die, you dumb, helpless little asshole!" The engineer said teasingly as he pointed the gun at Axtons head, ready to kill him.

Though at just that moment, something in him had changed, Axton instantly felt this wave of pure rage overcome him. Hearing the engineer call him 'helpless' had set him off. As the anger had gone off, Axton quickly grabbed the barrel of the gun pointed at him and pushed it out of his way. Axton got to his feet and quickly pulled out his hatchet, the engineer, now looking panicked tried backing away and shooting him, but his gun had jammed, he tried to fix it, but it was too late, Axton had already had him pinned and was ferociously chopping at the engineers face with his hatchet.

As he stood there, mercilessly chopping at the already dead engineer's face. Axton yelled out in anger; "DON'T EVER CALL..ME..HELPLESS!" he yelled loudly, sending an echo through the room.

As Axton continued as to brutalize his foe, he didn't even take notice to his team entering the building.

As they walked in Maya yelled out "Axton! You in here? We heard yelling and-" but she was cut short in her sentance at the sight of Axton, who had been chopping at the engineer, his blood splattered all over Axton's jacket.

Maya, Gaige, and even Krieg stood there in almost shock. None of them were used to seeing Axton this full of rage, they knew it wasn't him to be this brutal, just then Maya saw Salvador run over to Axton's side.

"Hey amigo, he's done, man! That's enough!" Salvador said grabbing Axton's arm, trying to breaking him out of his rage. Axton had looked away from his victim and towards Sal, looking pissed off he shook Sal's grip from his arm. Then he looked over at his troubled team, he instantly realized what was going on and felt ashamed, but he of course could never show it.

"Axton, what-" Gaige had attempted to ask only to receive a quick answer from Axton.

"Look, he had me pinned, my gun was out and..I got a little pissed that's all,ok?" AXton said as he looked down.

"We better head back to sanctuary. I think we've got this place cleared, good job everyone." Axton said trying to push off what had just happened.

"But Axton, it's not like you to-" Maya had attempted to say only to be cut off again by Axton.

 _"We better get back to Sanctuary."_ Axton said again as he turned his head to the side to look at Maya behind him, an overwhelming sense of anger in his eyes.

Maya and the others thought it was better to just let it be for now as they all followed him to the fast travel station and back to Sanctuary.

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That night the team had awkwardly headed back to the HQ and to their rooms to unwind for the night. Though Maya still couldn't get over the incident with Axton that day.

"What would cause him to act out like that? _It's not LIKE him to act out like that..."_ She thought to herself. She decided she needed advice on what to do, there weren't many Maya could trust to go to advice for, so she went to her siren sister Lilith.

She made her way over to Lilith's room, when she saw her door opened and she wasn't in there. She looked in the command center, only to fin her sitting at her desk looking over maps of the region.

"Heya Lilith." Maya said a little awkwardly

Lilith looked up from her work to see her siren sister standing before her; "Oh hey kiddo what's up?"

"Nothin' much, I was just wondering if you..hand a minute to talk it all..." said Maya

"Well, I have been buried in my work all day, don't suppose it would hurt to pull myself away from my work and get a little fresh air, come on." Lilith said as she started to walk over towards the balcony

As the two siren sisters made their way over towards the balcony Lilith said; "So whats up?"

Maya closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath, "Well, see its Axton.."

"Ooooh, worried about your little boyfriend,hmm?" Lilith said teasingly

"No, Lilith this is serious. Today when we we're out on that mission. Axton decided to go out and check this one place out on his own. I guess there were Hyperion troops there, he wasn't hurt or anything,but when we got there...he was...brutalizing this guy.." Maya said, beginning to get upset.

Lilith then knew that there really was something going on, she laid her hand out on Maya's shoulder in an attempt to comfort her.

"Whoa, whoa tiger, slow down. Now why would this be happening?" Said Lilith

"I...I don't know, I think I heard something about the guy calling him helpless or something..maybe, could that have triggered something?" Maya said as she looked up at Lilith

"I don't know, Axton was with Dahl for almost ten years remember, there are lots of old wounds a soldier can have..Roland told me that.." Lilith said, suddenly remembering her past love who was killed by that bastard Handsome Jack.

Maya soon saw the sorrow in her friends eyes and knew what it was about, she moved to comfort her; "Lilith..I'm sorry for making you bring this up. I didn't mean to upset you.."

Lilith broke out of her sorrowful trance, though Maya could still see the pain in her eyes.

"No, no it's fine, Maya, it's not your fault." Lilith said

"Why don't you try to talk to him? Axton's not a very open guy, but with you, maybe you can get something out of him." Lilith said trying to change the topic back

"Yeah..maybe." Maya said "Thanks for the help Lil, I just really needed to get that off my chest..and hey if you ever need to talk, about anything, I'm here." Maya said with a smile

Lilith smiled back; "Hmm, thanks sister" she said just before she went up to Maya and wrapped her arms around her for a friendly hug. Maya took this as a surprise but enjoyed it, she liked the idea of having a girl friend here, as she always was with other guys and Gaige was a bit too tomboyish to have girl talk with.

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Maya made her way out of the command center and towards Axton's room, she knew he wasn't asleep as his door was left ajar and his light was on.

She stood outside his room and took a deep breath; "Well, here goes nothing" She thought to herself.

After knocking on Axton's door she heard him say 'Come in' from inside. She opened up the door to find Axton in one of his DAHL PT shirts and shorts sitting at the foot of his bed loading bullets into magazines.

"Hey Maya, what's up?" he said, briefly looking up from his task.

"Not alot, just wanted to see what you were up to." She said slightly nervously

Axton must've noticed her nervousness as he briefly looked up again and smirked. "Well, this is it for me, just an ex-soldier left to load his magazines; one good thing about Dahl was that i never had to do this bullshit." he said

"Yeah I guess not." Maya said with a smirk. She had almost forgotten what she initially came here to do, as she snapped out of her trance she had while getting to talk alone with Axton.

"Uh.. hey I was actually wondering if you, you know, had a minute to talk?.." Maya said

"Sure, I was about done anyways." Axton said as he put his last filled magazine down on the pile he had made and put away his box of bullets. "So what's up?"

"Well..I wanted to talk about today.." Maya said nervously, for once she wasn't nervous about boring him or creeping him out, but how he'd react to her asking him about it again.

He surprisingly came off pretty calm about it, not getting very angry with her.

"Maya, don't worry about it, I told you, he had me pinned and the little asswipe wouldn't stop running his trap...so I got a little pissed, that's all." said Axton

Though Maya could tell he was trying to lie his way out of this, just by the look in his eyes how it sounded like he was just making this up as he went.

Maya began to go off by saying "But thats just it, you looked like you were more than just pissed, Axton me and all the others know as well as you do that you always keep your cool in a combat scenario, aside from Zer0 you're probably the most cautious and level-headed out of us all. Im used to seeing Kreig do shit like that but you..that just didn't look like you out there!"

"Well then who was it, huh? Crazy Earl?! Of course it was me!" Axton said, now becoming annoyed with the siren's prying

"What I saw out there WASN'T the man I know! What is the matter with you, Axton?!" Maya said angerly, though behind that she felt hurt that the obviously troubled commando wouldn't let her help him.

"Well then maybe you DON'T know me!" Axton said now beyond angry at Maya

Maya said nothing but let her jaw drop, she was at a loss for words and was doing everything to hold back tears right now.

"Look, I think I need to be alone right now, ok?" Axton said still fuming with anger, "Maybe it's best that you just go."

At that Maya was only able to let out a small 'Fine' as she turned away from the commando and slammed the door behind her, as she headed down the hall and towards her room, covering her already crying eyes with her forearm, Gaige was there and took notice to the crying siren storming out of Axtons room and into her own.

Gaige, confused by what had just happened tried asking Maya what was going on by saying "Whoa, what the hell-" but was ignored by the siren who had gone into her room and slammed the door.

As she entered her room she collapsed onto her bed and buried her face in her pillow and let it all out. She cried into her pillow for what felt like forever until she layed on her back and stared into the ceiling, why did he push her away like that? All she wanted to do was help him!

"Why does he have to act like such an asshole!" Maya thought in her head as she layed in the dead silence, all alone with her thoughts...

Meanwhile, Axton paced the floor of his bedroom angry at not only Maya, but everyone; angry at Maya for prying into him, at Sal for stopping him, angry at Gaige and everyone else on the mission for looking at him like a maniac, even Kreig looked at him strange, a psycho thinks HE'S a psycho!

"Why does everyone have to get in my business?! Why can't anyone just leave me the HELL ALONE!" said Axton to himself

Just then that same voice came up in his head; " _Look at you Axton, so full of anger, so full of hate, so much brutality..but it's not like you weren't like this before"_

Axton sat down on his bed shaking his head trying to silence the voice he was hearing.

"No, no I'm not like that! I'm..I'm better than that!" he said inside his head. "Shut the hell up!"

Axton laid down on his side on his bed, trying desperately to ignore the voice, but everytime he would try, it would only talk louder.

" _Of course you aren't Axton, look what you just did to that poor girl. All she wanted to do was help you, but you just ended up hurting her, why? Because that's all you ever do, Axton. Hurt people, kill people, and betray those who care about you and trust you the most!"_ the voice said

Axton laid there on his side, now in the fetal position with his hands over his face.

"Shut up..just shut the hell up.." Axton said quietly through clenched teeth, his voice trembling towards the end.

Finally, he could hold it back no longer. Axton broke down into tears, he couldn't remember the last time he cried, he always told himself that crying wouldn't do anything for him, but this time he simply couldn't hold it back. As his tears fell he felt a wave of heavy guilt go over him. He was angry at himself for how he treated Maya, he knew she only wanted to help, but he let his pride get the best of him, now only one question remained:

"What the hell would he do now?.."

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 **A/N: Wow, that was a really long chapter, this one took some time and effort to put together. I think i may have done a s*itty job in some parts..but overall not too bad. Yes, this is one of the more darker chapters, I know. As always, please fav/follow and leave a review! If you have questions don't hesitate to PM me :P Thanks for reading!**


	4. Chapter 4: Familiar Faces, Honest Hearts

Chapter 4: Familiar Faces, Honest Hearts

 **A/N: Hello all! I've had a recent influx of follows and favorites to this story which motivated me to write more. Thank you all so much for the interest!**

Axton layed there alone in his bed, no longer crying but sulking over how shitty of a night it's been. The way he's treated one of the few people he's genuinely grown to care for, the awfully painful conclusions he's drawn on how much of a monster he is, that inflated ego and smart-ass attitude he wears can only cover so much.

"Yeah, tonight definitely calls for one of these." Axton said as he sat up in his bed and reached for the small black lock-box under his bed. He pulled out a small key he had in his pocket and unlocked the box, it contained everything Axton had before he landed on Pandora- a small photo album, his metal lighter, and a pack of cigarettes.

He reached into the pack of cigarettes and took one out, the packaging read; " Ol' Smokey's finest, 100% quality guaranteed! (Made in Themis)".

Axton placed the cigarette into his mouth and lit it with his lighter as he made his way over to smoke by the open window, not wanting his room to smell of smoke. Even though nicotine always had a comforting effect on him, tonight it was of no use, his mind was simply too preoccupied on the current happenings to enjoy the buzz from the cigarette.

"No fucking use for this." Axton said as he blew out the last of the smoke from his lungs and tossed the cigarette out the window

Axton paced around his room, debating on what he should do next, he looked over at the clock by his bed and saw that it was only around 9:30, though it felt like it was late into the night.

Axton let out a sigh, "She's probably gonna hate my guts for awhile, but whether or not we'll still be on good terms, I still owe her an apology...dammit Axton what were you thinking?" he thought to himself, full of regret for how he treated Maya.

Axton opened up the door to his room and peeked down the hall towards Maya's room, her door was left slightly ajar, all he could see was the bright light creeping out into the dark hall from within the room, it was all quiet but she had to still be awake since the light was still on,right?

He took a deep breath and entered the hall, pausing for a second before thinking to himself; "Well, here goes nothin' "

He stood in front of her door and knocked twice before she called out.

"Who is it?" Maya said from inside the room

"Maya, it's me, Axton, can we just...talk?" He said nervously.

After only a few seconds that almost felt like hours, the blue haired siren came and opened the door, an annyed look on her face.

"What is it you want, Axton?" she said as she furrowed her brow and crossed her arms

"Axton looked down in shame for a brief moment before looking up again, "Maya..I'm really, really sorry for how I acted out earlier, I just..don't know what got into me. I don't know if this really means much but, can you please forgive me?" said Axton

Maya looked down for a brief moment as well as her face tuned to a mix of annoyed and sad; "I was only trying to help you Axton, and you just push me away like I'm some sort of unimportant bitch." said Maya

"I know, I know, Maya but, it's just that.." Axton let out another sight before asking: "Do you think we could do this somewhere a little more..private? Please, could I..come in? We can talk this out."

"Fine, make it quick" Maya said with a scoff

Axton entered her room, it was much more bare than he had imagined it, with its bare white walls with a queen sized bed on one end of the room and a large dresser/mirror directly on the other side, beside her bed sat a tall stack of old books with bare covers, maya was just about the only person in sanctuary that actually read, as most of sanctuary's citizens didn't read much aside from porn.

Maya took a seat on the side of her bed with her back arched and arms crossed, an annoyed look on her face still showing

"Well, start talking." Maya said

Axton gave a deep sigh before starting "Look Maya again, I'm sorry, I know you're pissed at me and you have every right to be by the way I acted. I know you were only trying to help, and it wasn't right to act out like that."

Maya face turned to a mix of sadness and annoyed as she stood up from where she sat to face the commando "I was just trying to help you Axton, I tried to help and you just pushed me away like I was- like i was some sort of..nagging bitch, I don't know!"

"Yes, yes I know what I did just, please don't remind me!" Axton said as he tunred his face away from the siren, surprised that he felt his eyes about to well up.

Maya noticed his face and turned towards him "Axton, have you...been crying?" Maya said, a bit taken back by the fact that Axton-THE Axton, the one who seemed like the very last of them all to ever shed a single tear, would ever cry.

Axton briefly looked at Maya and then back towards the floor "Well, yeah-hate to admit but..yeah I have, I see you haven't exactly had dry eyes either, hun." Axton said referring to Maya's quickly smeared away mascara.

"Yeah, I guess neither of us took what happened a little bit ago all to well, I half expected you to just get pissed but eventually brush it off, guess not though." Maya said, her face turning to that of one more sincere

"But, I don't get it, what would even bring you to something like that? You're a soldier Axton, an experienced one at that, you know loss far better than any of us..you'd be the last to even-" Maya said before being calmly interrupted by Axton

"Maya look, sometimes there are things- there are questions we just shouldn't ask, some things we should dig into, because we have no idea what lies there." Axton said to Maya; the both of them were now standing and looking directly towards one another.

"Axton, you can trust me." Maya said looking directly into his eyes

"We've been through hell together, carried each others asses out of the fire too many times to even count; Surviving that explosion on that train with Jack, making it off that frozen Glacier with that annoying-ass robot- CLaptrap, that fight with Wilhelm, freeing Angel, and bringing down the warrior and killing Handsome Jack himself. We've had each others backs then, and we still do now." Maya said as she came closer and placed her soft hand on Axton's forearm

"Now please, tell me whats going on" Maya said looking into Axton with her light Hazel eyes

Axton briefly closed his eyes and took a deep breath before opening them again "Alright Maya, I will..but it's sort-of a long story, maybe it'd be better if I show you, sirens can look into others mind's and see their memories, right?"

"Yeah, how did you know that?" said Maya

"I did some reading, so go ahead, you have my permission." Axton said as he leaned his head slightly closer

Maya took out her hand and placed her fingertips on Axtons forehead as she closed her eyes and bowed her own head "Okay..here we go" she said as her vision went dark and she suddenly saw a light...

===2 Years Ago===

"Well, here we are, out new home." Sarah said to Axton as the walked hand-in-hand into their new house outside the Dahl military base on Themis

"It's a nice place, glad we got it at the price we did, you're welcome." said Axton

Sarah rolled her eyes "Sweetie I don't think you actually haggled the guy down to a lower price, just kept annoying him until he made it cheaper so you would leave him alone." She said with a smile

"Yeah well, same difference, doesn't matter now, our service isn't over, but this is a new chapter in our lives." Axton said proudly

"Well..for more than one reason.." Sarah said as she looked into Axtons eyes

"Wait, are you saying what I think you're saying?.." Axton said as he looked down and took Sarah's hands in his

Sarah took Axtons hand and layed it on her stomach to feel

"Axton, I got my test result results back yesterday night, and well, congratulations...Dad." Sarah said with a smile

"Sarah this- this is- oh my God, I can't believe it! We're- we're having a baby?!"

Sarah then smiled and mouthed out a 'Yep' while nodding her head

Axton then leaned in excitedly and gave Sarah a long, loving kiss before breaking away and asking "When's the due date?"

"The doctor said sometime around October 21st, but these things are never accurate." said Sarah

But he didn't care, he had done it, soon him and Sarah would be married and have their own child, this was it, Axton was starting a family, at that point he couldn't have been any happier.

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==2 Months Later==

Axton chuckled as he continued his patrol on the route beside the outpost "I was thinking more along the lines of Axton Jr."

This made Sarah smile "I've already told you, one Axton is enough to deal with; and what if it's a girl, hmm?"

"Then we'll name her Sarah."

Sarah smiled and shook her head "Aren't you supposed to be on patrol?"

Axton sighed "Yeah, but..all I've seen these past few hours is trees, trees and more fucking trees, it's depressing really."

This made Sarah giggle "You've only got another hour then you can head back, who knows, maybe you'll find something...exciting!"

"Yeah..right after hell freezes over" Axon thought to himself as Sarah disconnected

Just then one of the other men on patrol was starting at the heat signature map on his echo

"Sir, I'm reading multiple heat signatures in our immediate AO, what the hell is-"

Just then the recruit was cut off by a loud 'NOW!' from an unfamiliar voice.

"Fuck! Ambush!" Axton yelled as multiple hostiles worked their way into his plane of view

"Initiate attack pattern bravo! Attack pattern-" but Axton was soon cut off by a sudden unignorable dizziness, along with blurred vision and muffled senses, it took him a moment to realize that they'd been gassed before losing consciousness.

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Axton awoke in an unfamiliar metal room surrounded by non-other-than Hyperion troops, their attention however wasn't on him, but on one of the other men he was with on patrol, they we're beating him, trying to get answers.

There was a tall, slim man amongst the soldiers whom Axton guessed was their commanding officer, calmly questioning his captive while on of the other soldiers beat him to a pulp.

"Now I'll ask again: 'Where is your base located?' the commanding officer questioned the soldier, a hint of annoyed in his voice

"Hey! Fuck off!" Axton yelled from the other side of the room, his arms and legs were bound together, with him laying on his side on the floor

The officers face showed and wicked grin "Oh good, you've finally woken up, I have some questions for you." He said as he walked over towards Axton and had him set up straight so that now he was on his knees

He grabbed Axton's chin tightly to make him look his straight in the eyes "Now I've grown very impatient so I'll only ask this once: "WHERE IS THE LOCATION OF YOUR BASE?" the officer said once again, his voice now full of anger

"Fuck...you" Axton managed to say through the mans tight grip on his face

Just then the officer let go and walked over towards the four soldiers lined up "Shame" he said "Looks like we'll be doing this the hard way."

The commanding officer then pulled out his pistol and aimed in at the back of the Dahl soldier's head before emptying a round into him, killing him instantly

"NOOO!" Axton yelled as he watched his comrade fall over dead

"This could've gone so easily" The officer said as he continued to walk to the next soldier, sending another bullet into his head just as he did the first

The soldier closest to Axton tuned over to him and whispered "Don't tell 'em...a fucking thing."

But these would prove to be his last words, as the commanding officer emptied a bullet into his head, with now all of Axton's squad dead except for him.

Their deaths had hit Axton hard, not only because they were his allies, but because he'd never lost a man under his command, never. He felt a wave of guilt and sorrow wash over him, this however had soon turned to rage.

"YOU FUCKING SON OF A BITCH! I'M GONNA FUCKING TEAR YOU APART, YOU HEAR ME?! I'M GONNA FUCKING KILL YOU!"

The commander merely laughed at Axton like a small child, his threats meaning nothing to him "You, fool, look at yourself, you're at my mercy now, you're pathetic, completely _helpless."_

He then walked behind Axton and bashed him on the head with his pistol, as Axton began to fade into unconsciousness he was able to hear the commander order his men to take him back to their base, only to be interrupted by an explosion coming through the far wall followed by what looked like Dahl soldiers flooding the room, as the Hyperion soldiers were quickly wiped out one of the men made his way over to Axton and checked his pulse "We've got a survivor!"

Axton's head injury finally caught up to him as he soon faded out

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==4 Months Later==

Axton was retrieved by Dahl and carried back to the Dahl outpost, though his physical injuries healed, his mental ones ceased to, the image of that officer gunning down his men and laughing at him when he was unable to do anything about it still daunted him. He had lost faith in himself as a leader and in Dahl in general, he decided that he would be doing things his way from now on, tired of all the bullshit, he made out for a path of self glory rather than following orders, this gained the attention of not only his superiors, but his wife aswell.

"Axton, I've had _enough_ of this." Sarah said angerly

"What? What the hell, Sarah-" Axton said before being cut off

"Your repeated events of disregarding orders in exchange for personal glory have led your superiors to dishonorable discharge. I'm sorry, Axton." Sarah said now partially upset

"So what now? You gonna turn me over to the firing squad? Unless they've changed the rules on me, I'm pretty sure semper fi means 'forever'. said Axton

Sarah swallowed hard and said "You are correct. At 0900 tomorrow the MPs will escort you to the brig where you will await your execution. As your commanding officer officially suggest you go AWOL, tonight, and try your luck on the border planets."

"Too bad. That woulda been good advice. What's this?" Axton said worried

"My wedding ring. You can keep it- I never liked diamonds." Sarah said before cutting off the ECHO

Axton gripped the ring into the palm of his hand, everything that ever made him happy was falling apart, he wanted to be there for his wife through her pregnancy, to watch his child grow, to grow old with Sarah and settle down, but that wasn't the case anymore.

"Ouch" Axton let out before escaping the base and taking the first ship to Pandora

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 **A/N: Wow this chapter took a LONG time to put together and write, I had to rewrite it 3 times but I hope this turned out alright. :) I should also mention that this story maaay teeter on the edge of becoming M rated in the future**. **Anyways, please be sure to leave a review and let me know what you thought of this chapter! Until next time! -UL**


	5. Chapter 5: Remember the Name

Chapter 4: Remember The Name

==2 Months Later==

Axton headed out of Sheriff Hardwood's office with his usual pay for another finished job, he strolled through the town towards the local bar, it seemed all he did lately was: work, drink, and maybe sleep for an hour or two each night. Ever since he was forced to leave Sarah and their unborn child behind, he fell into a deep depression, one he often tried to fill with booze.

He swung the bar door open to be greeted by the establishment's usual smells; cigarette smoke, strong alcohol, and vomit.

He pulled up a stool near the bartender as the tall and slim man turned and tipped his head towards him, "Rakk-ale, make sure it's dry." Axton said as the tossed a few bills onto the counter.

The man took Axton's money gladly as he grabbed him a bottle and popped it open for him to drink "Thanks." Axton muttered under his breath

He sat there staring down at the table as he drank, he just couldn't get his mind off of Sarah no matter how much of the piss-tasting drink he chocked down. Why had she let him escape? Would she ever try to contact him? Does she still worry about him? Should he be worried at her? The questions continued to buzz through his head, and not knowing the answer to any of them was beginning to get to him, he soon faded back to reality as two of the patrons started yelling and throwing their fists towards one another; both of them obviously drunk.

Axton then tuned his attention towards the radio news broadcast that was playing nearby him when it mentioned something about a Hyperion coup on Themis involving the death of several Dahl officers and troops.

"Hey-hey turn that up!" Axton yelled over towards the bartender, who did as Axton requested

"Yes, we have numerous confirmed K. and/or M. , we'll keep you posted on any further updates during this time.."

Though towards the end, Axton was barely listening anyways, he had already made his way out the door and towards a fast travel station, though he was ready to fast travel to the nearest off-planet transport and find Sarah himself, he stopped himself and remained calm, taking a deep breath, he thought to take out his ECHO communicator and try to video call Sarah, however he was met by a video voicemail left for him by Sarah herself. He quickly opened the message, hoping that it wouldn't be as he feared.

"Axton, if you're getting this and on the border planets as I hadn't instructed, this is a warning; DO NOT come to Themis." She said in a serious tone "Hyperion has overrun our base and we're under attack, they ripped through our defenses like paper, we've already lost.." she said shamefully as she closed her eyes for a brief moment; Axton could feel his heart racing in his chest

"So that's why I've taken the time to send you this, this is..goodbye, Axton. For the last time.."

As she said this Axton could see and hear the door of her room being broken down by enemy troops, the door finally gave way and the enemy seeped in, as they raised their guns towards her, Sarah let out a few final words as she put her hands above her head

"Wait, stop! We surrender, we can-"

It was too late, they had opened fire on her, sending bullets throughout her body, Axton felt helpless, like he was forced to watch the love of his life be murdered right before his eyes and he couldn't do a thing. She screamed in such pain as she was shot, undoubtedly being dead before she even hit the floor. Axton saw one of the soldiers say something that sounded like 'Objective complete, target neutralized' as one of the others came up to Sarah's ECHO and stopped the recording. Axton knew he'd never forget that scream, it played back in his head over and over, antagonizing him to the point of tears.

Axton instantly felt the tears begin to run down his cheek, he stared at himself through the black screen of his ECHO, as if that it was all over, he would never be able to see, hear, or touch Sarah ever again. He was completely alone now.

Just then his ECHO began to ring as he got a video call from Sarah, he quickly answered it, hoping that there was some chance that Sarah and his unborn child were still alive.

But it seems his hopes were crushed as he saw not Sarah, but the face of the same commanding officer from Hyperion he'd come face to face with during the execution of his squad.

Axton was taken back by his presence, he'd seen him get shot months ago, yet here he was, standing before him. The officer made a sly grin as he opened his mouth to speak.

"Sergent Axton, though I don't think I should be calling you that after your unfortunate discharge."

Axton gritted his teeth in anger "How the hell did you survive that encounter months ago, huh? I saw you die!"

"Bulletproof vests do their part, Dahl's always getting sloppy.."

"Shut the fuck up, where the hell is Sarah?" Axton yelled

"Oh..I'm dearly sorry but it seems that the commander has..taken a fatal accident-" He said again with an evil grin

"Not to worry though, my men are taking good care of her" he said as he turned the ECHO to show Sarah's bloody and lifeless body laying on the ground in a pool of blood.

Axton didn't want to believe it, but he knew it was her, from her blonde hair to her baby belly and body shape, it was Sarah through-and-through, and she was dead..

"No..no,no,no,no!" Axton said as he felt himself begin to break down

He suddenly looked back up at the officer who was looking back on Axton, his face amused by his torture.

"I swear to God and everything I hold dear, I will find you, and when I do-" Axton was suddenly cut short as the officer merely hung up on him

As Axton stood there alone again, he fell to his knees and broke down into a cry, he let the tears fall freely from his face, sobbing as he lost the two people he cared the most for and left to suffer on this hell of a planet, he had no idea what to do, or what was next..

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===Meanwhile on Themis==

"Sir, we've taken the bases main defenses offline, all that remains are small pacts of resistance, other than that the base is ours." The soldier said to the commanding officer as he destroyed Sarah's ECHO

"Good" the officer said "Ensure all prisoners are rounded up and and get anything you know out of them, I'm going to get into these encrypted files." He said as he turned to the nearby computer

The soldier left with a simple 'Yes, sir' as he turned out the door.

Feeling accomplished the officer gave himself a pat on the back; "You did well, Blake, you did well.."

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==Present Day==

Maya felt herself fade out of Axton's memory and back to reality, she looked up at him with tears beginning to stream down her face, barely able to get out the words she threw herself at Axton and hugged him tightly, burying her face in Axton's shoulder, she cried into him, not wanting to let her go, he wrapped his arms around her, just wanting to hold her close and not let go

"Axton, I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry." She said from his shoulder as she continued to cry into him, Axton stroked her hair, trying to comfort her.

"It's ok Maya, It's not your fault, really it's ok.." Axton could feel that his entire shoulder was almost soaked from her crying

"Damn, now look what he'd done, he just had to go and make another girl cry.." Axton thought to himself

Maya finally stopped crying and pulled herself away from him, she knew she shouldn't have dug this deep now, no man should have to watch his family die like that, not even the worst of monsters did..

Axton looked at the saddened woman who felt so much guilt for what she'd just done, not wanting to ever lose her or have anything happen like it had to Sarah, he stepped slightly closer and spoke

"Maya..if you ever need me in any way, ever. Don't hesitate to call me, whenever you need it, don't hesitate." said Axton

"Axton..thank you, the same goes for you too, anytime you need me, ever." said Maya

After a momentary pause, Axton let out a sigh "I should probably try and get some sleep, it's pretty late, goodnight, Maya. "

"Goodnight, Axton" She said as he left, though she didn't want him to go, she felt that a little company could do them both some good.

They both laid in their rooms, unable to sleep from the night's events, Maya finally decided on it, she made her way out of her room and crept across the hall to Axton's door, she lightly knocked before hearing him quietly say 'Come in', she walked inside shutting the door behind her.

Axton sat up his bed, looking up at Maya "What's the matter?" He said slightly worried

Maya said nothing but looked into his eyes as she stepped in close and sat on his lap facing towards him, it didn't take long for Axton to realize what was happening, they both leaned in and met for a passionate kiss before Axton leaned back onto the bed with Maya now on top of him, it wasn't long before shirts and pants came off and soon the two were naked in Axton's bed, they had both been needing this for a long time, there was a lot ahead for them, but tonight was dedicated to the two sweaty partners in bed, both of them his butterflies in their stomachs, and Axton swore he had fireworks going off in his head, but it would be a night to remember.

When they had finally finished, the two laid beside each other in bed, sweating and panting.

"Wow, that was.."

"Amazing?" Axton said, finishing Maya's sentence with a smile, still panting

"Yeah, yeah it was." Maya said as she came in close to him and cuddled in close to Axton resting her head on his sternum, Axton wrapped his arms around the siren as he embraced her as well, the two laid in bed that night, still unable to sleep but happy that they had each other's company, laying peacefully in the dark, quietly talking about whatever came to mind. It was their night, and they wanted it to last.

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 **Hey everybody! Sorry about the delay in chapters and if this one was a little short. School, work, homework and Life is Strange have been eating up all my time! xP Anyways I hope you all enjoy and please be sure to follow/fav. Laters!**

 **-UL**


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